Don't Tell Me That! ~ Part 2

(continued from Don't Tell Me That! ~ Part 1)

I laugh at this picture because I had to promise last year's class that I would never make popcorn again. I don't know what's so hard about it for me, but I actually set the classroom microwave on fire.

Anyway, talking about thinking and talking positively v. negatively, a few weeks ago Sofia's mother sent a text letting me know she had passed the first of four school exams. I told her congratulations and that "I expect three more passes little lady".

She asked me to stop, that she "preferred not liking me". I responded, "I prefer to like you, to believe in you, and to want the best for you."

The funny part is when she told me it was difficult communicating with me, I told her I understood, and gave my full permission for her to go back to thinking of me as a rotten bastard.

Life is too short to be little, and I have no time to worry about what others think of me. Instead, I focus on what others think of themselves.

Yet, I am constantly learning how to live, and when I'm confused or when my current thinking gets me stuck, I put it to the side and turn to those who have never died.

Ben Franklin, once such a constant critic that even his friends began to avoid him, learned to, "speak ill of no man, and all the good I know of everybody".

He became the ambassador to France, among other things. I can learn from him to get along with my child's mother and send positive, powerful thoughts to each one of my students.

I told Kristen that her current lack of skills meant she would be told when to get up, when and where to work, how to do it, when she could go home, and how much she would get paid....for the rest of her life.

Good God! Just like when we're in school. It's no wonder so many of us end up in this situation....we are literally trained to think, create and live this way.

(Brosden letting me know it's his turn to sit on my lap. Sofia looking pretty comfortable where she is.)

I have learned that I am surrounded by love....and the more I appreciate this, the more I am "forgetting what I'm lacking"...Even my ultra-conservative older sister, who doesn't always "get" my crazy and rebellious ways, still loves me as much as anyone.

Learning from everyone around me, when I don't "get" a student, I think of how Audrey loves me, and I in turn love my pain-in-the-hiney student.

So when I asked Kristen if this is the life she wanted, she said, "no". This was good because even when a student tells me "yes", I tell them, "Well not in this class you don't. For at least one year you WILL want more. I'm bigger and badder than all your fears, apathy and self-doubt combined. Look in my eyes. Tell me I don't believe this!"

(continued on Don't Tell Me That! ~ Part 3)